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The secret to higher profitability

Employees who know and use their strengths tend to be better performers. But does it drive profitability?

Here’s what we already know: Feedback is useful because it helps employees better understand and use their strengths. And as a manager, it’s important to know the different strengths of your employees in order to better leverage them for the team.

There’s no doubt we’re naturally inclined to focus on strengths and not weaknesses. It’s because success is driven by our strengths and success is always the end goal. In fact, the inclination to hone in on employee strengths is not just a gut feeling, research shows…

To some of us, there’s always been an obvious connection. You might already be thinking, people that know their own strengths will be more productive and effective at their jobs. But perhaps the missing link is how much the act of identifying strengths can contribute to the profitability of your team.

Research from Gallup shows just how closely linked strengths feedback and team profitability is:

At first glance, 8.9% greater profitability might not appear to be a huge increase. But consider the influence strengths feedback has when every single manager in your company is able to increase their team’s profitability by 8.9%. Now we’re talking about the real financial ROI of providing employee feedback.

Getting better at what you’re already good at

For years companies have known that leveraging employee strengths will better their teams. But what we initially didn’t know is when companies provide strengths feedback to help with this process, profitability also increases.

There are several factors that link strengths feedback to improving the profitability of a company. Here are some cost savings we found to be worth noting:

Lower employee turnover

Providing employees with strengths feedback shows that a company recognizes the value of their people and can better help them with their long-term career development. It’s no wonder that Gallup’s recent survey consisting of over 60,000 respondents found that:

Consider the time and resources your company needs to invest in order to hire and replace the average employee. The investment is substantial; from taking the time out of a manager’s day to conduct interviews as well as onboarding and training. So when giving employees the right strengths feedback can not only help them with their development by also reduce turnover—why aren’t we doing more of it?

Develop internal talent

You might be wondering: is all employees want to hear positive feedback? Luckily, that’s far from the truth. While employees are open to positive feedback, they are even more open to corrective feedback. That’s because employees believe corrective feedback is essential to their growth within a company.

Growing talent internally means you’re building a culture of continual growth and support. This type of culture encourages senior employees to coach and mentor those around them and promoting from within. Because why wouldn’t we want our employees to get better at what they already do well?

Our takeaway

Based on Gallup’s latest research on employee performance and profitability, we know that strengths feedback is what drives these results.

What’s most important now, is your leaders like yourself to never assume your employees know their own strengths. It’s because of this single assumption that we neglect to provide the necessary strength feedback that will ultimately drive higher profitability within your teams.

Employees who know their strengths are more successful and successful employees help companies improve their profitability.